Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container treatment installation with a refrigeration installation and a method for starting the operation or bringing into service a refrigeration installation of a container treatment installation.
Description of the Prior Art
A container treatment installation which can be or comprise for example a blow moulding machine, a cleaning machine, a filling machine, a labeling machine, a packaging machine, etc., is employed for example in the beverage industry for manufacturing and/or filling and/or packaging of containers. Containers are in particular cans, glass bottles or plastic bottles. The containers are transported by a transport device to or away from the individual machines of the container treatment installation.
In particular, a filling machine comprises a refrigeration installation for refrigerating a product or parts therefrom which is/are to be filled by the filling machine into a container. Refrigeration installations have to be emptied for exporting them. Specifically, refrigeration installations are affected here, which comprise larger, separately declared refrigerant quantities. As such refrigerant quantities are to be understood refrigerant quantities larger than 12 kg. The installations are filled by the producer for a first installation test (FAT) and have to be emptied thereafter again. Subsequently, the installations are filled with nitrogen. After the export, for recommissioning or restart of operation, the nitrogen has to be removed; the installation has to be evacuated for several hours and has to be filled thereafter by a refrigeration installation manufacturer with refrigerant. When refilling, the evaporating temperature is measured by a manometer and set to the values given by the manufacturer. The refrigerant amount or refrigerant amount results from the given parameters. The refrigerant has to be obtained on site in the country. It is to be assumed that these regulations will apply for more and more countries, also outside of Europe.
Disadvantageous in this regard is that the container treatment installation in the delivered version is not ready to use. For filling the refrigeration installation, it is necessary that a local refrigeration installation manufacturer or a local representative of the manufacturer or a technician of the manufacturer factory has to travel to the site of installation of the plant or installation. For filling the plant or installation again, the technician needs specific equipment like a vacuum pump, refrigerant manometer. Refilling the installation takes from several hours up to one to two days. There arise refilling costs of up to 10,000 EUR per refrigeration installation.